Had a devil of a time making up my mind about this post.
At first I included this photo of Dr. King. I found the stark nature of the photography striking. Painful. Poignant.
Then I changed my mind, reminding myself that this day was to be a celebration of his birthday. It hardly seemed appropriate.
Then I changed my mind again.
Because as long as there is injustice and intolerance and cruelty—and yes, apathy toward these conditions in ANY form, the work is not finished. It’s something to remember, even as we congratulate ourselves on how far we’ve come.
Please. Remember.
A. Men…..
The sad thing is, this didn’t happen a hundred years ago. That’s what’s so incredible. I was a baby, but my mother and grandmother remember these things. That it took the federal government until the late sixties to fully understand The Declaration of Independence is freaking amazing.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights….”
The Constitution is the best work ever written. The problem came from others interpretation of it. What the Civil Rights movement did was point it out in protest, marches, and only God knows how much else. It is very humbling to think about how many people died so I could sit at the front of a bus, sit in a classroom with non-”coloreds”, so that I could vote and not be subjected to guessing how many jelly beans are in a jar. So no you were right Raine to post the picture. He didn’t get a national holiday because he made a few speeches.
I have always found it so hard to understand how those wonderful lines could be interpreted any other way.
Those truths ARE self-evident., and the rights ARE unalienable.
I remember a bit of those times (yes, I’m getting old!). It IS hard to believe such powerful words, the foundation of our democracy, could be totally ignored to suit self-serving purposes, ignorance, and fear.
But they were, and are today in different, more subtle guises, and apathy is oh so easy.